Markt, Moral und Kopftuch – politischer Islam und Frauenfrage in der Türkei

Abstract

Abstract

From other Muslim nations Turkey differs in comprehensive and as yet unparalleled legal reforms with great impact on the emancipation of women. These reforms, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924 were part of a broader political project of nationbuilding, secularisation and modernization from above. Islam was then removed from the legislative and broader institutional sphere and the image of the „new woman“ as a modern, publicly visible and equal citizen was created. 2002, several decades after Ataturk’s revolution from above, Tayyip Erdogan’s moderate Islamist Party for Development and Justice (AKP) won the parliamentary elections in Turkey, especially by mobilizing support of hundreds of thousands of women activists. The educated woman activist, proudly wearing the headscarf, which is forbidden in Turkey’s public institutions, became the symbol of the Islamist movement. To make sense of this development this paper examines how the Islamists politicize gender relations and shows how Turkey’s new Islamist elite attempts to reclassify Islamic symbols like veiling as elite cultural markers. It also considers the contradictions between female Islamist activists trying to carve out new areas of autonomy and male cadres who strive for reinforced traditional female roles.